Terrorist surveillance program
Overview In December 2005 news reports appeared for the first time revealing the existence of a classified National Security Agency terrorist surveillance program, dating back to at least 2002, involving the domestic collection, analysis, and sharing of telephone call information.Peter Baker, "President Says He Ordered NSA Domestic Spying," Wash. Post, Dec. 18, 2005, at A1; Walter Pincus, "NSA Gave Other U.S. Agencies Information From Surveillance," Wash. Post, Jan. 1, 2006, at A8. Controversy over the program raised congressional concerns about both the prevalence of homeland security data mining and the capacity of the country's intelligence and law enforcement agencies to adequately analyze and share counterterrorism information. The Senate Committee on the Judiciary held two hearings regarding the issue on February 6 and February 28, 2006. Although details about the program are classified, statements by President Bush and Administration officials following the initial revelation of the program suggested that the NSA terrorist surveillance program focused only on international calls, with a specific goal of targeting the communications of al Qaeda and related terrorist groups, and affiliated individuals. It was also suggested that the program was reviewed and reauthorized on a regular basis and that key Members of Congress had been briefed about the program. In his weekly radio address on December 17, 2005, President Bush stated: President Bush also stated during his radio address: In a January 27, 2006, public release statement, the U.S. Department of Justice stated: On February 6, 2006, in his written statement for a Senate Committee on the Judiciary hearing, U.S. Attorney General Gonzalez stated: In May 2006 news reports alleged additional details regarding the NSA terrorist surveillance program, renewing concerns about the possible existence of inappropriately authorized domestic surveillance. According to these reports, following the September 11, 2001 attacks, the NSA contracted with AT&T, Verizon, and BellSouth to collect information about domestic telephone calls handled by these companies. The NSA, in turn, reportedly used this information to conduct “social network analysis” to map relationships between people based on their communications.Leslie Cauley, "NSA has Massive Database of Americans’ Phone Calls," USA Today, May 11, 2006, at 1A; Stephen Dinan & Charles Hurt, "Bush Denies Report of 'Trolling' by NSA," Wash. Times, May 12, 2006, at A1; Barton Gellman & Arshad Mohammed, "Data on Phone Calls Monitored," Wash. Post, May 12, 2006, at A1. It remains unclear precisely what information, if any, was collected and provided to the NSA. Some reports suggest that personally identifiable information (i.e., names, addresses, etc.) were not included. It also has been reported that the content of the calls (what was spoken) was not collected. Since the emergence of these news reports, BellSouth has issued a public statement saying that according to an internal review conducted by the company, "no such alleged contract exists” and that the company has “not provided bulk customer calling records to the NSA."BellSouth Corp., "BellSouth Statement on Government Data Collection" (May 15, 2006) (full-text). Similarly, Verizon has issued a public statement saying that due to the classified nature of the NSA program, "Verizon cannot and will not confirm or deny whether it has any relationship to the classified NSA program," but that "Verizon's wireless and wireline companies did not provide to NSA customer records or call data, local or otherwise."Verizon, "Verizon Issues Statement on NSA News Media Coverage" (May 16, 2006) (full-text). Together, AT&T, Verizon, and BellSouth are the three largest telecommunications companies in the United States, serving more than 200 million customers, accounting for hundreds of billions of calls each year.Barton Gellman & Arshad Mohammed, "Data on Phone Calls Monitored," Wash. Post, May 12, 2006, at A1. References Category:Data Category:Security Category:Privacy Category:Terrorism Category:Surveillance Category:2002